Senate bill may put Idaho at risk for wolf relisting

Senate Bill 1305 sponsored by Senator Siddoway and passed through the Senate Resources and Conservation committee aims to put tools in the hands of landowners and livestock owners burdened by depredation of their herds and guard dogs by wolves.  As the committee learned in a hearing on Wednesday, the bill might also put the wolf back on the table for re-listing.

At issue is a tenant of the bill that would allow the use of live bait in attracting wolves to be trapped or shot.  Senator Siddoway said he was astonished at the reaction from the public on the subject, and that people were expressing more compassion for the animal serving as live bait, than for dozens of sheep or 18 guard dogs he’d lost to wolves.  While Senator Stennet said she was confident that Siddoway’s intent was not to open the door to animal cruelty, and was equally sure he would not leave an animal of his unprotected, she was also concerned that the bill fails to specify the parameters under which live bait could be used and proper precautions to prevent cruelty by others.

Senators Werk and Cameron agreed on language in the bill that they said was problematic.  The bill says landowners may make use of the tools available to them “notwithstanding any other provisions of Idaho law.” Siddoway said that particular statement was based on the case of an Ashton, Idaho resident who faced criminal charges after killing two wolves in his front yard he feared were a threat to his children.  Siddoway also cited cases where landowners who were legally hunting coyotes at night with artificial light feared prosecution from Fish and Game officials.

Senator Cameron was unsatisfied with that explanation,saying the language made it possible for an individual illegally hunting after hours to claim that he was participating in a wolf depredation hunt under the law.

“That 'notwithstanding' language creates a hole that a person could drive a Mac truck through,” he said. 

Senator Werk agreed.

“The language about ‘notwithstanding’ is about as broad an exemption as any I’ve ever seen,” he said.

Werk also expressed concern about the live bait tenant of the bill.  He said because the parameters for using such a tool weren’t properly established.

“With live bait, whether or not the intent is to have individuals that would be engaging in the practice that would be diligent in protecting the live bait,” he said, “there’s nothing in this code that would dictate that anyone would need to be diligent.”

Senator Tippets said that he had spoken with Congressman Mike Simpson who said that if this bill passes, wolves might likely be relisted.  Although Tippets said he supported further examining this possibility, at issue was the rights of Idahoans to protect their personal property.

“When is enough, enough?” He asked. “The majority of Idahoans did not favor introducing wolves in the first place.  ….  I don’t know if this is the perfect solution, but I think we need to provide something to these landowners to protect their livestock.”

The bill passed on a 7 to 2 roll call vote, with Stennet and Werk opposing.

Wolves, Sage Grouse and Bull Trout the Topics of OSC Update

Administrator Nate Fisher of the Governor’s Office of Species Conservation (OSC) presented an update to the Senate Resources & Environment committee on Monday. Some of the functions of OSC include coordinating federal ESA policies with state agencies; soliciting, providing and delegating funding for ESA programs; and serving as the “the voice” for Idaho on ESA policy and facilitating collaboration among state, federal and private stakeholders. Current OSC activities discussed were sage grouse, bull trout, the new secretarial order for wildlands on BLM acres, and wolves.

A March 5, 2010 order by the USFWS said that sage grouse were warranted for listing as endangered species but were precluded at this time because there are more important species that need to be listed. Sage grouse status will be reviewed annually to see if anything has changed. In the meantime, OSC is working with state, federal and private sector stakeholders to determine the short-term and long-term ramifications of the warranted but precluded determination. Western Watersheds Project is challenging the decision.

Last year, USFWS published a new, expanded proposal for critical habitat for bull trout in Idaho and surrounding states. OSC coordinated the state’s comments focusing on the economic impacts of such a far reaching designation. The USFWS rejected the state’s comment and designated 8,772 miles of streams and 170,218 acres of lakes and reservoirs as critical habitat.

The designation will further restrict land use, and more environmental activist lawsuits could be filed against activities on federal land near rivers and lakes designated as critical habitat. Fisher showed maps of the land mass in Idaho impacted by sage grouse and bull trout pointing the vast number of acres that will be impacted.

Just before Christmas, 2010, Interior Secretary Salazar issued an executive order expanding BLM wilderness planning. BLM is supposed to inventory lands that have “wilderness characteristics.” Once approved, those lands would have to be managed as de facto wilderness since only Congress has the authority to designate public land as wilderness. Even without Congressional designation, those lands would be managed as wilderness which will impact multiple uses of BLM land.

Last, but not least, is the issue of wolves. The Governor is appealing a Montana judge’s ruling that wolves could not be delisted in Idaho and Montana while still being listed in Wyoming. Idaho has tried to negotiate a new “designated agent status” which would give the state some flexibility to manage wolves and include a public hunting season to keep the numbers at manageable levels. The Department of Interior wasn’t interested in the state’s concerns so the Governor terminated Idaho’s role in day-to-day management of wolves. Idaho’s wolf population continues to expand putting livestock and elk, deer and moose populations at risk.

Senator proposes clarification in permitting requirements for big game pelts, collaboration on wolf management

The Senate Resources and Environment committee on Monday considered several bills presented by Senator Gary Schroeder, including clarifications of big game reporting rules.

Changes to Idaho Fish and Game rules in the 1990s inadvertently failed to clarify IDFG’s authority to require permits to buy and sell black bear and cougar pelts. Schroeder, a north Idaho taxidermist, says that this omission could result in negative media coverage for those who engage in a regulated trade in lawfully taken wildlife.

“The last thing taxidermists want is for people coming into the state buying and selling things without regulation, create bad situations, get in the paper and give the industry a black eye.” Senator Schroeder said about the bill, which the committee approved.

Senator Schroeder also presented a resolution designed to encourage broader fact-finding and idea sharing regarding wolf management. The resolution, Rep. Schroeder says, encourages the Governor’s office, IDFG and the Office of Species Conservation to reach out and take the lead in originating dialogue in a more expansive area.

“The states that have wolves from the Great Lakes to the West need to be comparing notes and making sure they have a coordinated strategy to manage (wolves),” he said.
Both bills were sent on for consideration by the Senate.

Are the Feds Living Up to their Responsibilities Under ESA?

On Wednesday, committee members heard a report on endangered species in Idaho by a panel headed up by Nate Fisher, Idaho Office of Species Conservation. Fisher voiced the Governor’s frustration that while Idaho citizens have been willing to roll up their sleeves and work to save species, the Federal government has failed to live up to the provisions of the Endangered Species Act and to its commitments to Idaho citizens. We need to be concerned about what is in the best interests of Idaho.

Slick spot peppergrass is found in two counties in Idaho. Fisher outlined the history of the process starting in 2003 with the use of Candidate Conservation Agreements (CCA) which were meant to protect the plant so that listing would not be needed. The use of CCAs was so successful that USFWS withdrew the proposal to list slick spot peppergrass in 2004 which lead to additional lawsuits. The Obama administration has repudiated the agreements and proposed listing-invalidating the collaboration which led to CCAs. That’s why the governor has proposed filing a lawsuit to protect a state’s right to develop CCAs. If the feds can unilaterally say no after having agreed, this is a disincentive to citizens working with the feds to protect candidate species.

Fisher says the same scenario exists with sage grouse. Idaho has 13 local working groups involved in sage grouse restoration. In 2005, a sage grouse listing was not warranted. In 2010, a judge has remanded the issue back to the USFWS which could continue its stance that a listing is not warranted, determine that sage grouse not be listed because of its low priority, list it in its full range across 11 western states or list it in certain parts of the range. Whatever decision is made, there will be more lawsuits and less incentive to work with the Federal government on solutions that benefit the species.

Critical habitat for bull trout is again an issue with a 2010 proposal to declare 22,000 miles of streams and 533,000 acres of lakes and reservoirs as critical habitat after a decision to declare a smaller amount of critical habitat was remanded to the agency for another review and public input process. Almost half the stream miles and lake and reservoir acres are in Idaho alone.
The process to delist wolves started in 2005 and has been interrupted several times by lawsuits. In 2009, the wolf was delisted in Idaho and Montana. Hunting seasons were set despite a pending lawsuit to list the wolves as endangered. The oral arguments will take place in February, 2010. Idaho’s hunting season is still open in some areas until March 31.
Clive Strong of the Attorney General’s office also reported on the status of salmon litigation which has been on for over a decade. The Obama administration has made some changes to the 2008 biological opinion—adding an adaptive management contingent and triggers that would require a study of dam breaching. Congress would, however, still have to vote to breach any of the four Lower Snake River dams because they were authorized by Congress in the first place. A decision on the lawsuit in Judge Redden’s court could come this spring or summer.

Wolf sharing bill signed into law

S1015: Share our wolves, please: Signed by the Governor and went into effect on 4-17-09.
This tongue in cheek legislation officially recognizes that Idaho has a surplus of wolves and
offers some of these surplus animals to other states. This legislation directs the Idaho Fish and Game Department to write to their counterparts in all other states, offering some of our surplus animals.

Joint Memorial Encourages Wolf Delisting

HJM1: Wolf delisting: Adopted with only two nay votes.
This House Joint Memorial urges the United States to honor the commitment made to Idaho that wolves would be delisted upon fulfillment of the 1994 recovery standards, and that the President be urged to withdraw the directive suspending publication of the rule removing Northern Rocky Mountain gray wolves from the list of endangered and threatened species and that the President and his Administration be urged to allow that rule to take effect and defend the rule against any legal challenges.

Wolf Delisting Decision - ICIE Saturday Summary 3/7/09

Clive Strong, Idaho Attorney General’s office, reported to the Senate Resources and Environment Committee on the decision by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to delist the gray wolf in Idaho and Montana. The decision will be printed in the Federal Register and will final 30 days after printing. The state is expecting a lawsuit to be filed because the delisting does not include Wyoming. Idaho has over 800 wolves documented which are far in excess of what was required for delisting.

Wolf Impact - ICIE's Saturday Summary 2/21/09

The Saturday Summary is a weekly roundup of some of ICIE’s activities in and around the Idaho Legislature. Staffing limits mean we can’t cover every meeting. If there’s an item of interest to you at an upcoming meeting of one of the environment or agriculture committees, let us know and we’ll try to cover it. Agendas are available at www.state.id.us. Click on “Legislative” and click on “Calendars and agendas.”

The House Resources and Conservation Committee met on Thursday to hear a presentations on tracking Idaho wolves.

The department is collaring and tracking both wolves and elk to demonstrate the impact of wolves on Idaho elk herds.

Using GPS collars allows Fish & Game to get actual data to track individuals in the Lolo Zone and the Sawtooth Zone. The data from the collars are transferred through satellites to the Fish & game office to be analyzed. The committee was shown an example of the path of a particular elk calf and the path of the wolves that it eventually encountered.

Fish & Game reported that Idaho is way over the recovery levels for wolf numbers in the Lolo Zone. 91% of the hunter days in that area have been lost due to wolf depredation. There needs to be an aggressive effort to restore elk populations. The information about actual wolf-elk interaction will help with that effort.

Wolf Delisting - Saturday Summary 2/14/09

House Resources and Conservation Committee member Representative Lenore Barrett of Challis brought a House Joint Memorial before the committee regarding wolf delisting, noting “Idaho is fed up with the Federal foot dragging,” on this issue. She noted that the language of the bill is not hostile, but designed to bring the issue to the forefront of the Administration. The committee voted unanimously to send the bill to print.
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